Tyvärr = unfortunately

Kritianstad was sadly a bore. What made it most exhausting was a combination of the rainy cold weather and the lack of "business." Who ever thought that town needed a 9 day festival was out of their minds! Those weekdays were outright painful at times.

Music did have a variety, but some afternoons were just out of tune voices singing cover songs or a DJ, some were pretty good, some not... and then bands in the night... again, some were good, some weren't. Pop band from Denmark, a Frank Sinatra cover guy with a big band jazz night, country music another night, and the finale night was something out of the oldies era... was a little out-dated, but whatever, tons of people were there for the last night.

So, I did my best to just take it easy when I could since sleep is never good for me at these festivals. Wandered through their 1600's Renaissance cathedral, practised my latte art, and even made a couple of new friends. It's funny, while my sister-in-law, Sarah, was talking about heat and sun in her blog, I get to share the very opposite of shady clouds and seemingly incessant rain!

None the less though, Cristina and I made the best of our trip there. Met new people, kept each other in check for sleep, breaks, food, energy, even inspiring moments, whether it be latte art, hearty oatmeal breakfasts, or funny faces.

I must say, there was a truly fine gentleman to come our way. He requested a heart on the latte to give to his girlfriend with a biscotti for a special treat. I happened to just come back from a break in time because Cristina can make the most beautiful leaves and rosettas, but I've got a better knack for hearts. Well, we made this guy's and his gal's night! It was too too sweet, ya know? What girl wouldn't like or appreciate that gesture. Sure enough, they came round to say thanks again and danced to the live music near our moped for a little bit. Too sweet!

Since I'm proud of my new success, here's the pictures I got a chance to take. Cool, huh??! I can't wait to see if I can get my machine in the States to perform this well at the after party after the wedding reception. Wouldn't that just be too cool? If it doesn't work, I have a back up idea, but it is less artistic. Cute anyways, just not as impressive. Cristina has also said she'd give me a few tins of whole bean espresso for the party! How sweet is that? Too cool. I know that my family and friends will love this espresso. 100% arabica beans and from 5 countries in South America, roasted in northern Italy. Really sweet tasting coffee, excellent blend.

Please go to my flickr page to see the rest of the photos from this trip... I sadly do not have the power to go into a story for all the pics, but I did try to put captions in most of them. So, you can see a little of my thoughts. Gorgeous cathedral pictures, funny odd pictures, cute kids picking out balloons... lots of fun pics.

There's even a few pictures that show this here close encounter! That's a mobile stage that got within 3 inches of out 'little' moped that a lot of burly men surrounding the moped couldn't even lift, what a funny sight. (more than meets the eyes) Kinda scary too though, didn't know if they'd take it out or scratch it up or something! One light bulb did end up busting, so they bought us 4. That was kind of them.

Well, tonight, I'm off to Västervik, which is about 4-5 hours drive north east on the east coast, and more than half way to Stockholm. I thought I'd be in another place, but they've switched me! Sebastian and I'll be running a moped there for the next 4 days. We'll return on Sunday sometime. What's cool, is that it's a boat show related festival. That's pretty cool... not hard rock or bad cover artists...

Well folks, see you with a review of yet another town/city in Sweden next time!

More work!

It's funny to me. When we are working full time and all the time, we need a break, a vacation... but when we don't work full time, we fell lucky to have a few days or hours to be working... it's a strange feeling, isn't it?

I have very limited time this morning to chat or story tell, sorry folks. But I need to send a special "Thank You" out to Sarah, Becki and my parents for helping out with all our wedding planning details. It truly allows me to chill out a bit and really be able to take on the jobs that have just come to my calling. Caffe Italiano wants me back, heheh eh, I don't blame them!

I'm off to meet with Lena in Malmö! Then take a train out to Kristianstad for 9 days of town festivalage. Back for about 2.5 days then off to Karlshamn for 4 days, then back for the same sort of 2.5 days, and then way up north to Uddevalla (north of Gothenburg) for another 4 days. I'm so thrilled to be helping them out and feel needed too. Look for new posts from me, but only every so often. I hope to take loads of pics and share what I see about these new cities around Sweden.

I must head out. I'm all out of time. I hope y'all had a lovely Independence Day as mine was spent doing nothing in particular... watermelons just aren't the same here... but I have cooked a couple dynamite dishes using my new grill pan! Makes it taste so much better! Chicken breast stuffed with goat cheese and mushrooms, or a delicious asian flared ox filet mingion with wasabi mashed potatoes. Oh, we've been tasting some really good things!

Ta ta folks, See you in 10 days!

Our babies

We're parents! Of a beautiful little garden. We have a fluffly lookin' lavender bush, a huge and tall olive tomato plant, yellow chili peppars, and purple peppers!

Check our our new little prides and joys. They've grown since I took these pictures, but aren't they beautiful? I'm so thrilled to be working with these plants. We've started to plan a layout with the bikes, the couch, and about 10 more plants for next year... and starting the seeds ourselves in March or something. Crazy, but amazingly enriching. I love it. They will have to undergo more care from other hands throughout July and then the end of August when we're traveling, so we'll just see how they fare, but I'm keeping my hopes up real high for some yummy produce potential, even if it's all of one little side salad for the both of us! heh heh.

I've done it. I've bought a stove top coffee maker. Here is the new little beauty, alongside 1 of 2 new cutie mugs to drink the lovely coffee. I really enjoyed the geo-floral design that wraps around the mug without a break in the design. Really cool and pretty. I think they do make my coffee taste better. And the coffee and maker cost about what 3 coffees do out in the cafe world. Um, how could I not??!? And now I can offer guests coffee and tea!

Birthday Celebration x3

I had the pleasure of throwing a birthday meal and dessert for 3 birthday folks just last Friday evening. Otto from middle May, Gabi from late middle May, and Doug from just the 20th of June.

Doug and I decided to make some grand pizzas. We had 1 huge pan with a tomato basil sauce, sliced tomatoes, chopped marinated garlic, red peppers and Gouda cheese with some dried Italian spices too. The other thin crust pizza had a Parmesan tomato sauce, roast beef, sliced tomatoes, chopped marinated garlic, sliced marinated green olives with feta cheese, Gouda cheese and some dried spices, including a Spanish chili powder. Yum yum. I made the dough with a blend of white and whole wheat flour (both organic... is there any other?)

They turned out fantastic.

Thanks to Lena's cake recipe, I made up a delicious simple sweet cake with a cherry and blueberry filling. I whipped the cream up with a bit of sugar and vanilla. That cake was presented on my new cake plate with a clever doily pattern right on the underside of the plate. No useless and annoying paper doilies! But still the cuteness.

Here's the guests. From left to right we have Otto, Erik, Nils, Phinah and Gabi. I'd like to take this pause to say, "Happy Birthday Doug, Otto, and Gabi; I hope that the evening was as pleasant for you as it was sweet for me."

In the center of the table, we stumbled upon some brilliant gerbera daisies on sale, so I decided to share a sample of the colour tones we expect to use in our wedding display as well. Delicious rich red, orange and yellow with a hint of pink and then lime green tones. Way bright and fun and lively!

And for extra measure, although sadly not the best focus from the camera are these shots from a side street in Lund here. All these bursts of flowers and "bushes" are stunning roses! Isn't the overload amazing? Anywhere there's a bit of ground, they plant something or something finds it's way to grow there!

Next post... our own efforts of green thumb and our growing produce! That's right! We have produce!

Got Water?

This rock festival was too much for words... so I'll try to add some to the few picutres I managed to snag and capture. As the festival wore on, it grew more challenging to just pause and take pictures... especially since energy was so lacking. So, hope you like them!

Anders here is working 1 of the 3 moped kiosks that make up Caffee Italiano. On the right pic, Cristina is on the right coaching him. He's had training in Malmö for barista training, but until this festival, hasn't actually worked with it yet! He learned quickly and was totally open to coaching. What a cool sport.

Ted, you're absolutely right, they're drivable 3 wheeled mopeds. This brown one was stationed in the main way "outside" by a ton of shops and food stalls. The red one from the other post I worked at and we drove it in 2 or 3 afternoons to an area that you need to be secured to enter and then you can enjoy all the music you want. So, we started on the "outside" for the mornings and then about 12-2pm we'd move "inside" nearer the bands and people! Well, inside, we were perfectly positioned to be near the 3 biggest bandstands (ahem Aerosmith) and 2 were just in other areas. The 3rd moped was always on the "inside" and nearer one of those other areas just mentioned.

Next here is the bandstand that the 3rd moped was nearer to. And another shot with peoples and then more so. Each afternoon bringing more and more. The last days, it'd been so crazy to capture the masses! These were from Wednesday and Thursday only.

These next were attemts at catching just a bit of the place these folks called home for about a week. That's right, lots and lots of tents. These extended so much further than I even cared to wander!

My new friends fortunately had one more space in their camper so I didn't need to set up my new tent. Sometimes, it was a blessing, and other times, just plain sauna quality. But it was cool not to have to worry about my things in a tent!

Here's finally a photo of the 3rd moped. It's sweeter than the rest because it's bigger and has an access door on the side. What's cooler still is Cristina here, is wearing a t-shirt that says: "I love snowboarding." How cool is that? Have I mentioned how much I like this girl? Cool chic. So, looking at the espresso machine straight on, then around to the right would be the stage you saw above. to the left and further are the other 3 I was nearer and at the meeting point of (and by the watering hole).

I think this whole festival had cleaning issues. Throughout the night, garbage sat, and this was only Wednesday morning... didn't actually start until Wednesday afternoon! Here's one of many situations where I saw groups of cleaners (städ = clean) just standing around idle.

Meat anyone? kött kött = meat meat.
I just loved this sign. Made me think of all the vegetarians I've known and know of... but seriously, meat anyone?

Or rather water anyone? This place got so toasty, well over 80 degrees. And crazy open sun, no cloud relief. So hot in the afternoon. We were parked right by this here watering hole. Even got our water there too. But I'll tell ya, the people would flock after a band ended like there was only the 2 things, water and the bands, but I understand they flocked everywhere too... food, beer... you know, important things. See the poor earth? That used to be green and grassy. It's so torn up, that it's just dust and loose soil. The crowds literally kicked it all up with the evening bands too. Huge multi-story dust clouds would move with them. If you had to walk in it, well, brace your eyes and get ready for sting and a bit of coughing as you breathe in the dirt. Quite nasty. But I guess, it's better than if it rained? Just can't tell personally, but I suppose they're right.

Ted, I'm proud you actually looked at the photos from the last post. Because I have never seen so many people only clad in undies as they walk about. A man in boxers? yeah, a woman in a bra and briefs? oh yeah, and a man in a thong? sadly, even so! I don't have many pics of them due to never having the camera at the ready for them... but I don't think you'll miss seeing them. Would've had to put a rating on this blog then, don't you think?

This here last photo was a fun moment whereby this fellow played a little complimentary air guitar for us as we were so shearly exhausted on the last night (Saturday). These sorts of folks made the festival so much fun; got to admit.

I hope you guys enjoyed the festival tour. Feel free to ask more questions, I'm just spent and don't quite know where else to elaborate.

Sweden Rock Festival

The Sweden Rock Festival: a place where loads of people from all over the world (but mostly Sweden and Europe) come to a no-name place near Sölvesborg on the East coast of Sweden for an exhausting, thouroughly intoxicating, crazy rock and roll adventure for 4+ days! And I got to go and serve excellent espresso drinks to these (10s of?) thousands of people for the night before the morning after a bit and all those days in-between! (Picture on right: only Friday, before more and more people came... that red and blue tent is a a massive beer tent and I was sorta close to it as we moved the moped I was at everyday outside of the music area [top picture] to the inside past and well around the corner of the green tent in the right picture for the afternoons and nights... CRAZY!) By Sunday morning, that blue and red tent was pastel from the earth dust that was kicked up into the air!

My 3 worst bits from the festival:

1. I am experiencing the worst detoxifying experience in my entire life. The environment was so filthy and toxic that each half day that passed, I experienced a new problem. By the time Doug got me home, I just collapsed with exhaustion on the hallway floor. He helped me draw a bath and then I essentially slept. Fevered too. From early on coughs to eye irritation and battling over 80 degree heat and loads of sunblock and tons of dust in the air to becoming an outright flu like situation with congestion, sore throat, light fever and exhausted body muscles and irritated and sensitive skin. Way nasty.
2. Sheer exhaustion and a bit of confusion throughout the festival.
3. I realized I don't like festivals and am not so sure I really want to keep doing this line of work... none the less, my bosses want me back and I could use more work anyways, right?
   

My 6 largest prizes from the festival:

1. I officially have a job in Sweden. We all hit it off serendipitously. We're really happy to have found one another. Sebastian and Cristina couldn't be cooler or more motivated people.
2. I have finally mastered the technique of Latte Art. I successfully and purposefully created the BB, the heart, the leaf and a rosetta (not as many of the last 2, but still made them!!!!!)
3. I have a souvenier rock n' roll devil guitar pick.
4. I got to practice my swedish and learn loads of new words and how to say stuff.
5. I was compensated a bit more than offered for all my hard work.
6. Avoided getting hardly even a sun tan whilst most were burnt to a crisp!

More fun details later folks. I'm gonna take a break again. Still recovering ya know.

Birthday Redefinition

Before I head out tomorrow for my big event with the espresso service at the rock festival, I felt like reflecting on my new birthday conclusions.

I'm thinking that it's a birthday like this one I've had that starts to get people to not like them, rather than the age itself. I mean, hey, at least for a while, I'm embracing aging, nothing I can prevent, just live the best and healthiest that I can to enjoy the years that I have. So, aging is not my concern here with my new grand 27 completed years on this little rock of a planet hurtling through dark space only happening to be lit by our beautiful and searing sun.

No, my thoughts are within unknown expectations. It's funny how leading up, I didn't think I had any, but now realize I was full of them. Expecting some cool surprise in the mailbox, some fun thoughts from somebody I love from the US. It's funny, I did get a couple greatings and I must say they really did make me smile and enjoy that moment. But it's funny, well maybe not. Because I expected a few other folks, at least, to mention a happy day or something, ya know, nice and simple. It's funny how it didn't happen. Vague at best. Out of family, I gotta thank Mom, Aunt Martha and Sarah & Ted, and Grandma Carol for thinking of me. It meant the world to me that you mentioned it. Because now, I can officially say that I don't like birthdays anymore. I feel let down and that they really don't matter more than keeping track of how many days or years we revolve around that spectacularly toasty sun of "ours".

I don't know, I had to get that out there. It's bizarre how you don't even realize you have expectations until you've noticed them let down. Doug and I, on the other hand, celebrated a sweet birthday. We ate at a really tasty Mediterranean/Greek restaurant and he gave me a sweet and stylish little necklace. We then headed to his folks' place to have sweets and I must say that is was a nice evening with lots of jokes and light air. They were sweet and graced me with a few gifts that I didn't really expect though. Mostly, I think I was stuck on the idea of my family not doing very much to highlight the day. When I talked with my brother, I found out that if he didn't have a party for himself, then quite likely, he wouldn't have had much either? Weird. What's going on here? I don't reallly understand. I also know I'm just writing to vent and get it out of my head.

Mostly, right now, my focus is Swedish and getting siked up for the upcoming work week. Then after that, the end of my course and more wedding preparations in full gear. So, I'll see ya in a week or so after the Rock Festival to show some pics and tell some good stories, I hope.... hmm, expectations? Wonder what I've built in there and don't even know it.

Caffe Italiano - part 2

Great news! We all get along famously! I shared some stories and some photos from my little Tropic of Coffee biz and they loved them. They saw that I did what they're doing, just with a few variations really.

We hung out all afternoon. I got a mild face sunburn too, glad I wore long sleeves. But yeah, we hit it off, just chatting, getting to know one another through the world of coffee and our histories. Sure enough, they had a "gig" that late afternoon, evening. So, I helped and watched them set up their cool moped stand and we started making espressos. They only use arabica beans, which of course is the only way to go. We compared techniques and I tried to absorb as fast as I could, as many of their nuances in brewing as I could. What's really brilliant about their business is that they only offer the core espresso drinks.

• Espresso
• Macchiatto
• Americano
• Cappuccino
• Latte

They don't even have chocolate unless the party requests it, nor other flavorings, nor ICE for cold drinks! So simple. But I think that it's easier to accomplish here because Swedes are content with lattes (80+% of their business) and they actually don't give a flying hoot about sweetener flavor syrups and even sugar, most of the time. How brilliant is that?!! It makes me realize how complicated it was to please Americans, no really. They all have to have their special darn twist. Wether it's low fat milk, or sugar free syrup, or any syrup, or a blended frappuccino or something with whipped cream. They can't just enjoy the cool drinks for the simple splendor that they are!

We'll be offering 3 sizes of drinks (biggest is only about the 16 oz size). I get to sleep in a sleeping bag in a tent or the truck or something for 5 nights and I've been told the showers they have are really dirty and less than pleasant, great. Spot cleaning at its finest I suppose. I need to bring clothes for all weather because rain is always a possibility and so is sun and the nights are gonna get real cold; naturally. But I'm trhilled to be helping these young folks out and they're helping me too; so, for now, it's gonna be the start to a great relationship. We'll be expected to work solo at one of the 3 mopeds for 10-12 hours a day. Whoo!

What's cool is that they've just started a website: Caffe Italiano; you can see some pics, but sadly, it's in swedish. Sorry folks! So, yeah, I'm gonna be getting up there on Tuesday and serving Wednesday through Saturday and coming back on Sunday (June 5-10) Skål!

Caffe Italiano

I'm hoping for the best. I have an "interview" this afternoon with Caffe Italiano. The couple whom run this little coffee kiosk business are super nice. (Cristina and Sebastian)

We met in February at the wedding expo and we really hit it off after I casually invited myself to work for them. Well, they called me back only a couple of weeks ago... and well, looks like I'm in. I'm going to begin working with one of their mopeds at a rock festival in the far northeast part of Skåne (quite a train ride or drive away). The festival lasts for 4 days! Go to Sweden Rock for more info about the concert. I'm quite certain I'm in, but can't help but feel nervous. I guess I'm going to be nervous about my swedish for quite some time. But the cool thing is that Cristina is from Italy and is learning Swedish herself! So, she and Sebastian quite understand the learning process. I guess my coffee history has truly sparked their attention. Can't argue with that!

What's I think even more crazy, or ironic, is that my brazilian classmate, Eduardo, and his girlfriend are going to be at the same festival working the beer tent! I just about flipped. Here, I thought I'd be totally alone... and well, still might be, but that's rockin' I may actually see a face I already know! Way awesome.

Anywho, gotta fly, don't want to be late or anything. Hejdå!

Movie Rating Systems

Mood: Fantastic and bright.
Music: Jazz all morning and electronica by early evening now.
Happenings: Hosted a sweet and rockin' high tea party for a few of my new classmate girlfriends.

Tons of teas, lots of sugars, including Mickey Mouse shaped sugar cubes and brown rock sugar... 2 light tea sandwiches: 1. smoked salmon with fresh ginger, cilantro and lime cream cheese and butter spread; 2. cucumber with butter and daikon sprouts and a little S&P. Kicked up pigs in a blanket with mustard.... then there was dessert with truffles, brownies and cheese cake, as well as delicate raisin sugar cookies. FABULOUS! Only 3 of the 6 invited came, but it was a really sweet time anyways.

Perhaps picks later, since I actually have none...

But, you've got to love this here explanation of a movie rating system. It couldn't be more simple, straightforward and explanatory. Makes me wish most were like this.

5 stars: briljant = brilliant
4 stars: mycket bra = really good
3 stars: helt okey rulle = OK flick
2 stars: i brist på annat = if nothing else, then this is OK
1 star: inte ens i brist på annat = not even if there's nothing else
no stars: borde aldrig blivit gjord = should never have been made

I just think that movies get so ambiguous with a variety of stars attached to films and we don't really know what they mean anymore... but this newspaper seems to have it smart! I quite like it anyways.... particularly that last one, shouldn't have even been made. Sometimes, films really need a no star rating, or even a 1 star rating, because they can be pretty generous with the 3 stars on films that don't end... like the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie, good grief the critics liked that one. Just can't agree. Anyways, I'm off to enjoy a gorgeous afternoon from a rainy and cold earlier half of the day! Ta ta!